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It has been five years since Lost started, and can’t you remember the delight in slowly unravelling the complex mysteries that turned a tale of a crashed plane on a desert island to something much greater? No? Well, that’s because the show has barely let go of its secrets after five years. After two exciting series that slowly expanded our understanding, the third series became ridiculous with some terrible Mcguffins and a step too far into the supernatural, only to revive itself in Season Four. Next year will be the final year of the show, but the big question is whether the past Season, its fifth, will make it worth waiting for.

The season ended in another (and thankfully final) cliff-hanger, with Juliet hitting the nuke. But the mystery of John Locke is what most fans will be debating. Found dead in his coffin, who is the Locke that challenged Jacob, the seeming authority of the island? It’s pretty obvious that the walking and talking Locke is someone in disguise, the mysterious man who pledged to find a “loophole” that can kill the seemingly immortal Jacob at the start of the final episode. Jacob, before dying, refers to the loophole, suggesting that he took over the form of Locke in some way. Let’s hope that we’ll get some sense of who these people are before the final credits roll.

The big disappointment of the finale was, as usual, in the writing. While tense, it got to the stage where characters were being manipulated just to cause that tension. Juliet and Sawyer were convinced Kate to return to the island to stop Jack, only to take 5 minutes to completely change their minds. Various reasons were given, but none really stick. In fact, Sawyer’s character has become more malleable than putty this season, ranging from rogue to Mr. Responsible at any moment. Bad writing has been evident throughout Season 5, with the first few episodes being very repetitive for a show that usually tries to shock us with twists and turns. Entire episodes (Miles’s past and relationship with his father) felt like padding.

Possibly the greatest reason for feeling as if the show’s been running around in circles is the way it treats the new characters. Read the rest of this entry »

Reports have came out that Hugh Grant has taken himself off from “Lost for Words” a Universal Pictures flick that he is supposed to star. The reason for Grant’s departure is said to be caused by creative differences. Well, whatever the cause may be, it is pretty serious.

Grant had agreed last summer to play a British thespian approached to star in a film by a Chinese director. After a flirtation with her translator, the actor falls for the director. Ziyi Zhang is playing the director. Susanne Bier is directing the film, and Working Title partners Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing with Jonathan Cavendish. Jamie Curtis and Dan Mazer wrote the script.

As I said, this falling out could be serious as Grant’s best films — from “Love Actually” to “Notting Hill” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” — have all come from Working Title. If Grant withdrew from this, then there must be something amiss with Grant’s relationship with the company.

Those pesky reporters at the Hollywood Reporter are doing their jobs well, reporting that Lost star Harold Perrineau will executive produce and star in indie thriller Killing Jar.

The movie will tell the story of a stranger armed with a shotgun who takes seven people hostage at a remote roadside diner. Interestingly, as the body count increases, the survivors discover that one of the hostages might be more dangerous than their captor.

Perrineau himself will play one of the hostages; Michael Madsen and Danny Trejo are also set to star.

Filming is currently underway in North Carolina.

About a year ago Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof picked up the rights to The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. However, he hasn’t done anything with it, and doesn’t plan on doing anything until the end of Lost.

Fortunately, the good news is that he plans on adapting the seven books into a seven film series.

“The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the Lord of the Rings trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we’ve got seven books we’re looking at,” he said. “The idea of doing that at the same time Carlton and I are bringing Lost to a close is simply not viable.”

He adds that figuring out what the films will look like has not begun yet, and that he would be glad to make a seven film series out of the books.

Is JJ Abrams the new king of Hollywood? A presence around TV and film for many years, he made his name creating Alias, and then went on to make the hugely successful Lost, with its vast viral marketing campaign (its inter-season online game The Lost Experience was even more complex and sprawling than the show itself). He followed this up with Cloverfield, another success due to the marketing, and the film’s low budget (which meant large profit). And, before his revamped Star Trek comes out, his latest creation, entitled Fringe, is a mystery TV series that starts airing in the US in September. But lucky for you we’ve managed to watch the first episode of the show, and post some thoughts.

The show starts with a shock, as the passengers of a plane are infected by a chemical that rapidly melts human flesh. The FBI are called in, and we follow agent liaison officer Agent Dunham. Hot on a trail, her partner and lover gets infected, and Dunham has to solve the case before she loses her love. She eventually tracks down a mad scientist, Dr. Bishop, and uses his son to get him out of the madhouse and into the lab. Already, the story stinks of another X-Files, but is it any more?

Its big advantage over The X-Files is its confined mythology. While The X-Files had an arc that ran throughout its entire series, that of an alien invasion, about half of each series comprised of diversions, following cases such as stretchy serial killers, possessed children, Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), etc, which often proved frustrating. Fringe, however, has linked all of its abnormalities into a single thread- that of terrorism seemingly generated by some evil corporation that is above federal powers. Read the rest of this entry »

J.J. Abrams talks about the significance and dynamics of knowing when to lay a series to rest. He’s at the  the Television Critics’ Association press tour taking questions about his series.  He talks particularly about Lost and Fringe. 

It seems the Lost stars are finding their way into Hollywood, as word on the street is that Josh Holloway has joined the cast of the upcoming comedy Stay Cool. The film focuses on a successful author who is forced to confront an unrequited high school crush when he returns home to deliver a commencement address to graduating seniors.

Holloway will play the role of the high school jock and ex-boyfriend to the author’s crush. Mark Polish, Winona Ryder, Chevy Chase and Hilary Duff are set to co-star.